Spike Lee is known for films that put a mirror up to culture, specifically how it interacts with the Black community. The Academy Award-winning director wrote, produced, and directed his first film in 1986, She’s Gotta Have It, and since then has continued to release thought-provoking, critically lauded films, grabbing a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination for 1989’s Do The Right Thing and the award for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2019’s BlacKkKlansman.
Outside of his devotion to film (and the New York Knicks) Lee, who studied at both Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, has continued to pay it forward to fellow HBCU pupils and alumni. Last year, he launched the Spike Fellows Program in collaboration with The Gersh Agency to support students at the Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC) which includes Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University. “From the jump, from the get-go, I knew when (not if) I opened a crack in the door, I was bringing as many Black and Brown folks with me in front and behind the camera,” Lee said at the time of the program’s announcement. He added: “I know firsthand the education one receives at a Historically Black College and University. I am who I am because of my grandmother and my mother who both graduated from Spelman College. I am who I am because of my grandfather and my father who both graduated from Morehouse.”
In honor of his impactful contributions to HBCUs and his groundbreaking portrayal of the Black experience in film, we’re highlighting a selection of Lee’s most thought-provoking and groundbreaking “Spike Lee Joints.”
She’s Gotta Have It
She’s Gotta Have It, The 1986 film that launched Lee’s directorial career was filmed entirely in his native Brooklyn on a shoestring budget. The plot follows Nola Darling, a graphic designer juggling the affections of three lovers. Shot in a grainy black and white, Lee’s debut was a raw character study and foreshadowed his desire to push storyline and cinematic boundaries. Its portrayal of female sexuality and before-its-time polyamorous storyline as well as its additional effects of jazz, imaginative photography, and ‘80s urban culture was one of the first warnings of Lee’s fingerprint in film. The film was translated into a Netflix series in 2017, where it ran for two seasons, bringing Darling’s drama to a new generation.
Do The Right Thing
Racial tension, staggering societal reflection and a Cannes Film Festival debut that left critics in awe (or fretting that the film would launch race riots), Do The Right Thing was ahead of its time both philosophically and culturally. The film, which saw Martin Lawerence and Rosie Perez in their acting debuts, explores the racial friction between Black residents of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and the Italian-American owners of a local pizzeria. The film speaks in tragedy and violence and all takes place on one scorching summer day. Besides its Osar nod for Best Screenplay, Danny Aiello, who plays the pizzeria owner Sal in the film, received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Malcolm X
Starring Denzel Washington and directed and co-written by Spike Lee, 1992’s Malcolm X highlighted and dramatized the work and impact of the famed African American Activist. Much of the screenplay was based on Alex Haley’s book The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and details the civil rights icon’s imprisonment, conversion to Islam while imprisoned as well as his startling assassination. As the film’s central figure, Lee’s X is controversial, unapologetic, and radical, with Washinton receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance.
Crooklyn
The 1994 film takes place (again) in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1973. The story focuses on a young girl named Troy Carmichael and her family. Thought to be one of Lee’s most personal films, with its storyline that touches on his own childhood experience, Crooklyn chronicles the bitter-sweet dynamics of a Black family growing up in an ever-changing New York City borough. The screenplay was written by Lee’s sister Joie Lee, and was originally titled Hot Peas and Butter, recalling what Joie called celebrations of her and her brothers playing as “street kids.”
He Got Game
The 1998 sports Drama again sees Lee featuring Denzel Washington, this time as Jake Shuttlesworth, a man serving a life sentence for the accidental death of his wife. His son Jesus (played by actual basketball star, Ray Allen) is a top-ranked basketball player, and the films central plot centers around convincing him to play at a specific school (the governor releases Jake on parole and promises a reduced sentence in hopes that he can convince Jesus to play for his alma matter). The story breaks the typical arc of coming-of-age sport stories and instead becomes a gritty, uncomfortable drama on the tense relationship between a father and his son.
Inside Man
Spike Lee taps Denzel Washington again for this heist-focused crime thriller. With Wall Street as its backdrop and Washington playing a hostage negotiator named Detective Keith Frazier, Lee’s cinematography, editing and direction add an air of palpable stress for viewers. Clive Owen plays a cunning, whip-smart robber in the film, with the finesse of a Bond villain. The tense feature marks one of the only times Lee was hired on to a film for his directorial skills, instead of producing and writing the film itself. The picture was a success, hitting No. 1 at the box office on its opening weekend.
Blackkklansman
The 2018 comedy-drama is loosely based on the 2014 memoir Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth. The film — which won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival — received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and a Best Supporting Actor nod for Adam Driver. In the film, Stallworth is hired as the first Black officer for the Colorado Springs Police Department and goes undercover to infiltrate the Klu Klux Klan. The film makes through lines to current events, with footage of a 2017 Unite the Right rally where a hit-and-run attack killed a protester. With it’s absurd humor, real-life references, and balance of laughs and gasps, the film is considered by some to the director’s best.
